Everything to Know at the Start of the Federal Election
Check your enrolment, find your candidates - and try Vote Compass!
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has visited Governor-General David Hurley, Australia’s 43rd Parliament has been dissolved, and a federal election has been called for Saturday 21 May 2022 - exactly three years since the last one.
If you have moved since 2019, update your details on the electoral roll here.
If you are not yet enrolled, but you are eligible to vote (Australian citizen over 18 years on election day), you can enrol here before 8pm Monday 18 April 2022. You’ll need a driver’s license or passport.
Ask your friends to check if their enrollment details are up to date. Note that 16- and 17-year-olds can enrol now so that they can vote when they turn 18.
What are the main things at stake in this campaign?
Who will be the local Member of Parliament to represent your electorate in Canberra, and which party (if any) they will belong to.
Which party will control the House of Representatives - either the Liberal-National Coalition or the Labor Party - and how many “crossbenchers” (i.e. independents and minor party MPs) there will be.
Whether Scott Morrison or Anthony Albanese will be Prime Minister, as a result of their party gaining a majority of seats in the House of Representatives.
Which parties will gain some of the 40 available seats in the Senate, among 76 total seats, which will determine how easily the new government can pass its agenda.
How will this election affect me?
In Australia, we can exercise many democratic freedoms - including the freedom to tune politicians out. Some Australians may live comfortably enough that they feel their lifestyle won’t be materially affected by election results; some may experience disadvantage such that they feel neither party will offer effective help; some may simply be too busy with work and family to follow the political news of the day. Others may tune out after feeling disillusioned with what they hear.
Yet government ultimately affects everyone. Politicians determine taxes and how the revenue is spent - as we’ve seen with the temporary halving of the fuel excise from 44¢ to 22¢ per litre until 28 September. Their daily choices affect welfare programs like JobSeeker, business confidence, wage growth, school and hospital funding, the cost of university, infrastructure projects, and of course climate action.
Less visibly, they also fund and engage with bodies that play a role holding them accountable - from the ABC to the Australian National Audit Office to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to a possible future ‘federal ICAC,’ an anti-corruption body.
And that’s before you consider the really big unknowns: How will they respond to unforeseen events in the next three years? How will all of these decisions affect the decades that follow?
So even though the decisions in Canberra can feel abstract and far away, they will have consequences that reverberate through your bank account, reshape your study and career path, support your friends and family, and safeguard your environment. And even the countless Canberra decisions that don’t affect you directly will affect many other Australians, and be made on your behalf, with your taxes and your democratic sign-off.
So what should I expect?
1. The Campaign
You will hear from political leaders introducing themselves, criticising each other, identifying problems and proposing solutions. All of this gives you priceless clues about their fitness for office. Who do you like or trust more to make those important decisionsdescribed above? Who is talking about problems that seem more pressing to you - and proposing better or fairer policies to address them?
2. Election Day
Voting is compulsory but it’s also usually quick and easy. In fact, Pre-Poll voting will start on Monday 9 May, 12 days before election day. If you rock up to vote early, you may be asked to give a reason, such as travelling on election day or being worried about catching covid-19. Whenever you choose to vote, the Australian Electoral Commission aims to run the simplest and smoothest elections in the world - queues are often short, ballots give clear instructions, party volunteers can offer you flyers but not enter the polling place. Oh, and almost anywhere you go on election day, you can enjoy a Democracy Sausage™.
3. The Result
If the result is close, it may not be known immediately on election night. It might depend on postal votes, which many people are expected to cast this year. If neither party wins 76 seats - the minimum needed for a majority in the 151-seat House of Representatives - then both major parties will negotiate with crossbenchers to agree on terms for a minority government, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard did in 2010. Pending an emergency, the winning party will hold office for a full three-year term.
Who is most likely to win?
Labor is ahead in the national polls, but the polls were wrong in 2019, and also missed recent state elections in WA and SA by significant margins. Labor’s path to victory is also slightly harder, and things can change fast in campaigns. So it may be close. Neither side is taking anything for granted.
The Liberal-National Coalition starts with 76 seats, the bare majority needed to control the 151-seat House of Representatives. Labor notionally holds 69 seats, so they need seven more to govern in their own right.
Antony Green, the brain behind the ABC’s incredible election analysis, makes these three points:
Labor’s poor result in 2019 has left them defending more super-marginal seats than the Coalition. So, on paper, it could be harder for Labor to pick up seats than the Coalition.
Assuming a uniform swing, Labor on paper needs a national 51.8% of the two-party preferred vote to win.
But a uniform swing across the whole country is unlikely, because there are big differences between different states and different electorates. Both parties could make gains and suffer losses in different places, making the final result even harder to predict.
Should I be doing anything now?
Make sure you are enrolled to vote by next Monday!!
Take the ABC Vote Compass quiz to learn which party best reflects your views in key policy areas. Nearly 160,000 people have taken the short 30-second quiz so far.
Find your electorate in the ABC’s Electorate List to learn who your candidates will be and other key facts about your area.
Apply to volunteer with the Australian Electoral Commission as an early voting officer, electoral visitor, polling assistant, scrutiny assistant or any other roles - these are great short-term opportunties for community and leadership experience.
If you’re interested in how the race to 76 seats might play out, check out guides on the key seats by Antony Green, The Conversation and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Antony Green also has an election guide and blog worth following.
What if I am struggling to care?
1. Let the power go to your head.
Politicians, political hopefuls, and their ever-growing campaign teams are out in force trying to make as many friends as possible in just 40 days. Their overwhelming mission is to win your vote - and that makes you the boss, expert and custodian of their heart’s deepest desire.
There is never a better time to contact your candidates and ask hard questions - or simply ask who they are and why they would be a good MP for your community. In nearly every case, you can expect a quick and friendly reply as they try hard to impress you.
Even if they disagree with you on a policy, you can bet they remember each interaction at the end of the day, and over time, these conversations really do influence their thinking and the direction of campaigns and future policies.
2. Remember every vote really counts.
Recycling, volunteering, op-shopping, vegetarianism, ethical buying, climate action. If you’ve supported or engaged with such things before, you know that many worthwhile things are achieved when individuals act together - even if no single person’s actions can determine a result on their own.
Some people feel that living in a ‘safe seat’ makes their vote worthless. Even at face value, this raises questions. New seats come into play all the time - see the formerly safe Liberal seats of Indi and Wentworth - and even in the safest seats, most politicians are paranoid about the tiniest swing against them.
Yet the bigger picture is even starker: just as climate action matters in a country that emits barely 1% of earth’s greenhouse gasses, voting matters in a seat, no matter how high the incumbant’s margin looks on paper. It’s like playing tug-o’-war: even small people can contribute to big results, as long as they’re working together to pull in the right direction.
This is not just theory - it’s what happened in 2019 when young people stayed home and this shifted results. Analysis of voter figures at the 2019 election showed turnout at its lowest level since compulsory voting was introduced in the 1920s. The main factor was low turnout in the youngest electorates, including the seats of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. In the youngest seat, Melbourne, where the median age is 30 years, turnout fell from 90 per cent in 2013 to below 82 per cent in 2019. This was despite unusually high voter registration following the marriage equality plebiscite. In several seats, the missing voters could have altered the result.
3. Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.
Many Australians are disappointed in politicians - but elections still offer valuable opportunities to be heard.
One complaint about the major parties is they can seem overly similar. While they also have important differences, it is true that compulsory voting encourages them to target their top messages to reach seemingly similar, narrow groups of ‘swing voters’ residing in a relatively small share of electorates.
Yet that big picture leaves huge room for your individual priorities when it comes to details. That’s why, on closer inspection, parties are appealing to countless groups every single day. Follow your local candidates on social media. Their days are packed with visits to local businesses, community groups, sports clubs, charities, churches, schools, you name it. And for the most part, they are earnestly listening and trying to find ways to help and support these groups to succeed in the community. Why would they not? Not only is this the job they signed up for, it’s also the way to win elections: every seat has at least 20,000-30,000 uncommitted voters, and they come from all different backgrounds and walks of life. In a close election, there are nearly infinite combinations of different voters who can play a role in getting one party over the line. That’s a powerful incentive for every candidate to listen hard and work hard to win your support.
This doesn’t mean you can get whatever you want. The constraints of our democracy simply mean there are many other voices to be heard, too, including those you probably disagree with. Ask Josh Frydenberg or Jim Chalmers to abolish your taxes or make your uni course free - you will get a polite response that leaves you with the distinct impression nothing will happen, because those are big asks with implications for many other people. The way to influence those things is through organising with other groups to campaign over months or years.
But if there is a local issue or problem that you think needs more attention - the next six weeks are the perfect window to get some or all of your local candidates talking about it and finding solutions.
There is also an invisible but real benefit to Australia’s chronic centrism: it prevents the major parties from doubling down on turning out their most extreme supporters, which can promote division and polarisation, as seen in the United States.
Is our system perfect? No, far from it. But it’s good. Good enough that you can have an impact, if you want.